Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Last week I was lucky enough, with a few friends, to have a quick tour of the Berry Brother's cellars in London. The shop alone is worth a visit if you are in central London. The photos below speak for themselves, some lovely old wines in here, the earliest from the early 19th century.

But I blind tasted you on this you would swear this was 5-10 year old cabernet sauvignon from the left bank of the Gironde. You really would.

It took a while to come out of its shell and definitely needs 12 or 24 hours of decanting. I've had it open for 48 hours in the fridge with the air sucked out of the bottle and it's now really opening up.

And yes, it's from Greece. A blend of organic local Limnio and Cabernet grapes, it's really both a gem and a bargain.
It has the classic claret flavours for me. A little age, black fruit, a hint of smokiness and some tannins to give it character.

For £10.99 a bottle it's well worth a try. Here's where I bought it, my first purchase I think, from UK wine site Swig.

I'm a sucker for well written wine pitch from the various websites I sign up to for updates on wines. They sold me on the location as much as the tasting notes:

"The vineyards lie on the slopes of Mount Athos in Macedonia, which takes its name from the mythical giant, Athos, who threw an enormous boulder at the god Poseidon, but his aim was poor and it landed in the Aegean Sea, creating the rocky peninsula named after him. Known today by most Greeks as ‘Holy Mountain’, it is home to twenty monasteries (see photo above), where Eastern Orthodox monks live and work and farm the land organically. Evangelos Tsantali, the winemaker, buys their grapes and continues those principles in the winery, making a wine that is certified as fully organic."

"The blend is an even split between the local grape variety, Limnio, known for its velvety influence on a wine’s texture, and Cabernet Sauvignon. A double act similar to Bordeaux, where Merlot adds soft flesh to Cabernet’s muscle. Its gentle flavours and fine aromatics can be attributed to the fact that the vineyards sit at a height above sea level that confers warm days, but cold nights – the essential recipe for aromatic expression."

Swig Tasting Note: “Medium deep Morello cherry colour with just a touch of brick showing at the rim. It has a delicately perfumed, Claret-like nose, with a lovely hint of autumnal maturity. It’s the sort of wine you want to sip slowly and keep coming back to, as it unfurls slowly in the glass. There are all the classic Cabernet Sauvignon notes of blackcurrant leaf, plum and capsicum, framed by notes of pencil shavings and powdered spices from the 8 months spent in new French barriques. The fruit on the palate is soft, ripe and subtly spiced, old-fashioned, almost, in its fine-grained texture and has the feel of a carefully handmade wine. The Claret-like impression on the nose gives way to a sunnier character on the palate, more reminiscent of a Tuscan Cabernet, with notes of dark cherry, cassis, laurel and the mellow aromas of mahogany and chestnuts. It’s not a ‘modern’ wine, so I wouldn’t recommend it if your default choice of red is a Californian Merlot, but it’s a lovely wine to serve just below room temperature and enjoy with a big cote de boeuf, a haunch of venison or barbecued lamb chops. 14% alc. Drink now-2017.”

This one was a beauty. It opened up after 30 minutes in the bottle once opened, and has a richness and a texture you just don't seem to get outside Burgundy in younger whites (in my limited experience)

Sunday, 8 June 2014

Regular readers of this blog, if there are any, may note that I don't blog much about Burgundy. This is for a really simple reason. I don't know much about the region, or the wines. I haven't had the time or the budget to explore the decent stuff. Finally, being completely honest, Pinot Noir is really not my favourite grape. I often find it a little lightweight for my tastes, which are far more Bordeaux, Rhone valley or Languedoc aligned when it comes to French wines. However, I'd be the first to admit to not having tried much decent burgundy, given its cost and my slight prejudice against the grape.

The one region I have always been a fan of which focuses on Pinot Noir is Central Otago in New Zealand.

Back in 2009 I was in Marlborough and Queenstown and tasted quite a few South Island Pinots. Many of the Central Otago wines I had, I loved. They have an intensity and complexity that I enjoy in other regions. I've got a case of 2010 Rippon Vineyard, Rippon Mature Vine which I am really looking forward to tasting at some point soon, probably Christmas.

Anyhow, back to Volnay. Now this is a find. The manager of the wine bar in Prague where I tried this last week told me many of the wines from this area have these below characteristics.

Rich acid nose, spicy, earthy forward fruit. Minerality, definite age on the front of the palate and then the Pinot breadth and smoothness kicks in. Long finish, bit of oak and vanilla (but in a very good way!)

This wine was a bit of an eye opener for me. I haven't had a Burgundy like this before. That's more likely due to my ignorance (in fact it definitely is). This wine really ticked all the boxes for me and I'll be hunting out more in the future.

The Cuvée Juliette 2009 which I tried in Prague is, according to the bar manager who knows the Chateau personally, named after the wine maker's daughter.

The label is fantastic, good to see a Chateau with some imagination and creativity.

The wines are very reasonably priced too. This exact wine is hard to track down but the others from Ricardelle seem to be under £15, even from BBR.

The Cuvée Juliette 2009 is a mix of Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, and Mourvèdre, a blend common in this area, and is aged in French barriques for 12 months. My tasting notes are here:

Ricardelle

Huge, smooth, dark berry cassis, and chocolaty flavours, 14.5% alcohol but slips onto the palate and has a finish like rich velvety silk. Alcohol taken to its limits but balanced given the huge fruit. Has a complexity that some 'Parkerised' wines lack. A man's wine (generally speaking!), no doubt.

Despite the high alcohol levels (unavoidable this far south it seems) it went wonderfully with the utterly superb beef bourguignon in Prague's Wine Bar (linked above and well worth a visit), and pictured below. Both wine and wine bar are well worth a visit if in Prague or Southern France.

Friday, 6 June 2014

One of the many pleasures of travelling around Europe is the wines you find which you don't see much of at home. Or more likely, just hadn't looked at much.

This Verdicchio Dei Castelli Di Jesi 2009 I discovered in a restaurant in Prague after much googling of the wine list to match something with seafood.

I know almost nothing about the region, or didn't until I read a few articles, but this is a wine I would advise checking out.

It's not for the faint hearted though.

Here are my tasting notes from last night:

Dry, rich, reminiscent of
bone dry white bugundy but with a focus that feels Italian. Restrained
nose. The age of this 2009 is coming through. Strong acid, zero
citrus/lemon (hooray)

Slightly off bitter finish. High alcohol at 14.5 which adds to the texture, but you wouldn't know it was quite that much unless you checked. Definitely a palate cleanser but also so much more than that, lots of complexity.

According to several reviews the finish is supposed to be of toasted almonds, but my palate is clearly not advanced enough for that.

More about the region is here. The Riserva, as so often in Italy, is worth paying a few Euros more for, apparently.

"The Castelli dei Jesi wine-producing zone encompasses the hilly territory around the town of Jesi in the province of Ancona. This area features fortified villages which were built here in medieval times, and which give rise to the Castelli part of the DOC name. The terroir here is ideal for the production of mineral-tinged dry white wines, thanks mostly to its calcareous, clay and limestone-rich soils and a relatively dry maritime climate."

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About Me

I'm Toby Webb, founder of Innovation Forum, a sustainability focused research, publishing and events business. I'm also a lecturer on Corporate Responsibility at Kings College London and at Birkbeck, University of London. Tobias DOT Webb AT innovation-forum.co.uk